Projects and activities involving multiple items, such as play/toy pieces, small parts, components, collections, balls, supplies, and the like, are difficult and time-consuming to clean up after. It is difficult to pick up large numbers of small items from a work or play surface and place them in a storage container. It also takes a long time, especially when the items have been scattered over a sizable area during use.
In the case of play/toy pieces, manufacturers or parents typically provide rigid or soft/flexible containers for storage of items when not in use on a play or work surface. Examples of typical rigid containers include large plastic containers, lunch boxes, picnic baskets, bins, baskets, and/or drawers. Examples of typical soft/flexible containers include backpacks, sacks, Zip-Lock™ brand storage bags, and pillow cases.
Such conventional containers have several drawbacks. For example, rigid containers are difficult to carry and stow because their rigidness does not allow them to conform to a person that is carrying them or to an available storage space. In addition, when more than a few small play/toy pieces are placed in a rigid container, the pieces stack up on one another, and the users, such as children, are neither able to see nor get to the pieces that shift to the center or bottom of these containers. This makes it difficult to play with, or even see, all of the pieces of, for example, a play set.
Another drawback of rigid containers is that they are inconvenient to transport to another location, especially when they contain a heavy quantity of items. For example, a rigid container cannot be comfortably slung on one's back and walked with, for example, to a neighbor's house or down the aisle of an airliner. In addition, rigid containers are typically breakable, and a broken container may release small items held inside. For example, if a rigid plastic container containing small building block toys is dropped on a hard floor in an airport, or on a driveway at a neighbor's house, it may crack open, scattering the building block toys that were held inside.
Typical flexible containers, such as tote bags and sacks, do not securely contain small items, such as play pieces or work items that are only a few millimeters in size, because they are designed to stop the passage of large items, such as books and clothing, and because they do not securely and completely close their openings. Lacking means for completely and securely closing all openings, tote bags and sacks do not prevent small pieces from falling out when dropped, flipped, or shaken, as might occur during transport by person or car, or as airline baggage. And, like rigid containers, the sack-like or bag-like shape of a flexible container causes pieces to stack up on one another, such that a user of the pieces is neither able to see nor get to the pieces that shift to the middle or bottom of the container.
The most common user's solution, and especially a child's solution, to this problem is to dump the pieces out of the container so that they are all visible. This solution, however, creates another drawback when it is time to stop participating in the activity. To clean up, the small play/toy pieces must be picked-up individually, lifted, and put back into the container. If a child or elderly/disabled parent/caregiver is performing this task on small items, the clean-up process may be very difficult. And even for the able-bodied, this clean-up process is slow, tedious, prone to losing pieces, and often frustrating.
For items that are dumped or unpacked from a container to play or work with, parents may provide a separate play or work surface, such as a flat mat, sheet, or blanket. For example, a child may dump play pieces from a backpack onto a flat play mat, which provides cushioning for the pieces and the child, and protects the underlying surface (e.g., a floor or table) from wear. A flat play mat, however, does not restrict the movement or aid clean up of pieces at the end of play, as children typically push and scatter play pieces off of the surface of a play mat while dumping from a container onto a mat, and during play. Thus, even when a flat play mat is used, all pieces that scatter off the mat must typically be picked-up individually, lifted, and put back into a container.
Hence, there is a need for a single, convenient-to-carry, easy-to-store, securely sealable, and easy-to-use device that addresses these drawbacks.